Terrain generation is used in the computer game and film industries and aims to generate synthetic terrains.
Existing approaches to creating digital terrain employ either procedural- or simulation-based approaches. Procedural-based approaches typically use multi-scale noise functions which are adapted to take on some characteristics of terrain. While this approach enables large terrains to be created rapidly, the generated terrains tend to lack realism.
Simulation-based approaches, on the other hand may enable the inclusion of, for example, hydraulic and thermal erosion in the generated synthetic height-field terrains. This results in synthetic terrains having a more realistic appearance. However, simulation of synthetic terrains often implements computationally expensive simulation processes which are time consuming to complete. Thus, synthetic terrains generated by simulation can be slow to generate, often to the extent that the synthetic terrains cannot be manipulated or edited by users in real-time.
There is accordingly a need for a technology which alleviates these and other problems, at least to some extent.
The preceding discussion of the background to the invention is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgment or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge in the art as at the priority date of the application.